Mind Your P's and Q's

Imagine the chagrin of one eBay seller who tried to sell some
software for an "IMB" computer. In fact, misspellings
were so common on eBay, the company installed a spell check feature for
sellers earlier this year. "People will still look for those
fortuitous misspellings, but they will be fewer," says
eBay's Hani Durzy.

Misspellings in advertising, marketing materials and letters
quickly erode your company's credibility, especially if
you're selling professional services, says Rick Keating, CEO of
marketing firm Keating & Co., in Florham Park, New Jersey.
"[People in] industries that are detail-focused expect that
you'll be diligent with their work," he says. "People
underestimate the power of a misspelled word."

Spell check catches most errors, but it isn't a reliable way
to check the proper use of words or grammar. If you don't have
a staffer who's a good copy editor, hire someone to proof your
materials before sending them to the printer, Keating advises.

While it can be difficult to quantify the actual impact of a
misspelling-an ignored sales pitch or the customers who don't
call-a badly placed misspelling can cost you if it forces you to
reprint material or products.

Pay Attention

"Don't ask, they won't tell" is a dangerous
policy when it comes to monitoring pay equity.

If you don't monitor the total pay earned by each of your
employees, broken down by gender and ethnicity, you might be
overlooking inadvertent discrimination, says Mary Graham, associate
professor of organizational studies at Clarkson University in
Potsdam, New York. In her studies of the personnel records at major
companies, she's found that women often get 3 percent less than
men with similar jobs and performance appraisals working at the
same firm.

"It's not surprising that it's overlooked,"
she says. "You don't want to take away managers'
discretion to reward performance. But look on an annual basis to
see who got the promotions and bonuses to see if it is
unintentionally discriminatory."

Gender pay inequity tends to widen over time, adds Vicki Lovell,
study director for the Institute for Women's Policy Research,
based in Washington, DC. "It's more equal when people are
just entering the labor market," she explains. "For
people who are fresh out of college and just starting out, their
initial job offers are about equal."

But over time, inequities start to creep in. The mathematical
certainty is that just one or two below-par raises guarantee that a
woman or minority will continue to lag behind white men, even when
they do the same work. That's why it's so important to
review pay patterns annually.